The invention concerns a device for acquiring measurement data, which has a housing, an inner chamber of the housing, and a membrane that is supported by the housing and bounds part of the inner chamber of the housing, and in which at least one sensor is installed within the inner chamber of the housing.
Devices of this type use measurement technology, for example, to determine gases that pass through the membrane. In this regard, first, the membrane shields the sensor from the environment, and, second, the membrane ensures that only predefined gases are able to enter the area of the sensor in appreciable concentrations. Sensor systems of this type are described, for example, in EP 0 823 055 B1 and EP 1 114 297 B1.
One problem with the use of sensors and measurement systems of this type is that the gases that pass through the membrane to enter the environment of the sensor escape back out of the area of the sensor at only a relatively slow rate when the gas concentration in the vicinity of the measurement system changes. When the gases to be detected are present in concentrations that vary as a function of time, this gives rise to significant time constants, which result in measuring sluggishness of the overall system.
Therefore, in the case of movement through a local measurement area with different concentrations to be measured or with concentrations to be measured that vary as a function of time, the previously known measurement systems are still not able to meet all of the requirements that are placed on optimum measurement quality.